"7th Amendment" lyrics

The early on quite celebrated
Mostly unincorporated
Access to a jury in a
Federal civil case

Made it easy to do business for
The planting class in days of yore
Whose enterprises-they felt-were
Excised in excess ways

What are rights within a nation built by slaves?
Where mass expropriation is the order of the day?
The framers kept their vision on the dream that they were living
And so made grievous elision of their contradicting ways

But through the nineteenth century
This right was claimed increasingly
By people who'd been pointedly
Excluded from the law

And though most juristic members were
White male landholding lenders
Access haltingly extended
As its use began to fall

What does it take for bodies politic to change?
When the letters of the law in many ways just stay the same?
The Supreme Court never managed to take adequate advantage
In not doing so were damaged what advances could be claimed

Though seven does still stand today
Its power's mostly passed away
To pretrial schemes and fees to pay
To get your day in court

Through many means it's gone and went
Whether by disenfranchisement
Or court-coercive settlement
Or arbitration clause

Is it entitlement that comes at such a cost?
When for most, the price of entry is already quite a loss?
Old number seven proved effective for the ones who did erect it
But when the courts could not protect it, to obscurity it crossed